The risk from a novelty dance mat - which dangerously overheats - is wider than was first feared by safety chiefs.

The risk from a novelty dance mat - which dangerously overheats - is wider than was first feared by safety chiefs.

Trading Standards officers say following a warning in the Gazette about the Game Player - a plastic mat which connects to mains electricity and the TV set - calls from concerned consumers have come in from across Teesside.

Originally they thought the only source was a stall at Ormesby market. But they now think it could have been on sale across a much wider area - and possibly through shops as well.

The mats allow the user to dance along to music videos, but some have the potentially deadly defect of the transformer heating up and starting to melt after just a little use.

A number of the Game Players have been bought for #20 from the market just before Christmas.

Steve Vickers of Middlesbrough Trading Standards said: "We suspect the problem is greater than we first thought. There may be more than one importer as well as a number of sales outlets.

"We have alerted trading standards departments across the country."

Mr Vickers stressed there are safe, properly-branded, but correspondingly more expensive versions of the toy, but anyone who has doubts should ring their local trading standards department.